FORM ARTICULATED: Communicating form experiences in design

This report discusses methods for examining and communicating experiences and knowledge about the means designers can use in order to achieve a form expression that speaks to an immediate sensuous experience, with a particular view to courses, practice-based research and artistic development in design education. The discussion builds on Donald Schön’s (1983/2016) theories of the reflective practitioner and underscores the following conditions for the designer’s approach to aesthetic issues: complex wholes, the inadequacies of language and the call for innovation. In this light, the text proposes methods based on the use of cases and illuminating comparisons of examples as a way to identify design phenomena and qualities. The concepts of ‘eye’ (to have an eye for an issue or a topic), ‘take’ (a way of doing things) and ‘appreciation’ (the attitude that motivates a choice) are used to describe types of experience that can meaningfully be communicated. It is pointed out that an adequate description is not possible without including a certain value charge and that expressed attitudes and assessments are crucial for the design student to develop the aesthetic judgement that is a necessary aspect of the design process.